Mahi  Ngātahi  - Collaboration

Naku te rourou nau te rourou ka ora ai te iwi

With your basket and my basket the people will live
 

Kia ora e te whānau

It’s been another hectic week in education with three stand out events dominating.  These are the mega-strike announcement from NZEI and PPTA, the proposal to change legislation to protect children’s right to full time education and Bullying Free week.

Strike Action over Teacher Pay Dispute

The announcement of the mega-strike action planned for May 29 comes as a surprise in that the two teacher unions have never before combined in such action. Whilst the hope is that negotiations between now and next week will result in a settlement, we need to be prepared for strike action should negotiations break down.

Here is a link to the Ministry’s website outlining the steps you will need to take if the strike proceeds.

Whilst NZEI members have already been on strike twice over the current pay dispute, this would be the first strike action by the PPTA members. There is no doubt that teachers’ pay and conditions have been neglected over the past decade, as has the support for our challenged young people.  The failure of our special education system feeds into the high demands and excessive workloads that teachers are now experiencing, making the situation far worse. School graduates thinking about a career in teaching, are very quickly put off by these factors.  The status of the profession needs to be restored.  That will not happen until we have a learning support system that has the necessary specialists and teacher aide support available to all schools.  Teachers’ pay is one more factor contributing to the drop in the status of the profession and a settlement needs to be reached urgently.

Strengthening Children’s Right to Full-time Education

NZPF agrees that every child in Aotearoa New Zealand has the right to full-time schooling and that the supports and specialists required must be made available to schools so that this right can be executed.  We cannot have one without the other.

Changing the legislation to ensure children have the right to full-time schooling must be accompanied by additional funding to accommodate all children throughout the school day.  That means that children who require full time teacher aide assistance to be at school must be granted full time teacher aide assistance, not part time help. Those who require more intensive, specialist support, must receive that support.  Only then will schools be able to fulfil the requirement to have every child attend school for the full school day.

Here is a link to have your say on this issue

Bullying-Free Week

Congratulations to all of you who joined the campaign last week to highlight ways to combat bullying at school. Many of you took up the ‘pink shirt day’ idea and some invented your own ways to counter bullying.   Onekawa School in Napier built brightly coloured ‘Buddy benches’ to reduce loneliness and encourage friendship in the playground. It is a way that children can demonstrate the values of inclusion and kindness and help those less confident children to find friends. Well done Onekawa School on a brilliant initiative!

Connecting with the Regions

My thanks this week to The King Country Principals’ Association, Taumarunui and Ngati Porou Principals’ Association, Tokomaru Bay for inviting me to your regional meetings. As always, it’s a great privilege to visit you and hear first- hand what your thinking is on the current issues in education.  I very much value your views and thank you for hosting me.

I will be back next week with more news and updates

Ngā manaakitanga

Whetu Cormick
whetu@nzpf.ac.nz